


take these broken wings and learn to fly

by jaythenerdkid



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 14:32:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1652099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaythenerdkid/pseuds/jaythenerdkid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a prompt submitted by <strong>kellieku</strong> at <strong>tmpfanficprompts</strong>: <em>What if Danny had come out of the bathroom when Mindy said "that's how I knew you didn't want me" and he convinced her that he really did want her all along?</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	take these broken wings and learn to fly

**Author's Note:**

> Title is, of course, from "Blackbird" by the Beatles. It seemed like a good choice for a story about second chances.
> 
> To **kellieku** , I hope this is something like what you wanted.

_"Hey, you drowning?"_

Danny takes a deep breath, then another, but no matter what he does, it feels like his lungs just won't fill up. Her words are echoing in his head -  _you weren't right for me either_ \- and he feels like maybe he is drowning, a little.

"Danny?" Mindy's voice sounds outside his door, a little high-pitched with concern. He can hear her standing up and knows he's going to have to face her sooner or later. Might as well rip off the band-aid. He takes one last deep breath - still not enough - and opens the door.

"Danny, are you - wait, what are you  _wearing_?" He's standing there in his vest and button-down, hair neatly gelled into place, and for once in his life, Danny Castellano has absolutely no words.

"Is that a vest? Do you sleep in formal wear now? I didn't even know you  _owned_ formal wear!" Mindy exclaims, staring at him bemusedly, filling the silence with her chatter. Danny is almost grateful for that, because he still doesn't know what to say. "I just assumed you got married in a Springsteen shirt or something. What the hell, dude?"

He ends up blurting it out. "I'm Andy," he says, wiping sweaty palms against his trousers. "It was me. You were going to meet me on the top of the Empire State Building tonight."

She falls silent at that, her mouth half-open as though she wants to speak but can't find the words. The silence stretches between them, thick and cloying, and once again Danny feels like he can't breathe.

"I'm...sorry?" Mindy says eventually, as though she's trying to convince herself she couldn't have heard him correctly. Her eyes are still fixed on the absurd spectacle of him - half-dressed in an unbuttoned vest over suspenders that make him feel like he's a kid attending Mass again, tie held loosely in one hand. He wants so, so badly for this not to be happening, for her to be anywhere but standing in his bathroom doorway staring at him like that, like she can't decide whether she should be angry or disgusted or some combination of the two.

"I thought, maybe, you know...maybe I could make you realise you were still in love with me," he mumbles, unable to meet her gaze any longer. The tie slips out of his hand and onto the floor, unnoticed. He stares down at the bathroom tiles, blinking back tears. Standing here now, Mindy staring at him incredulously over the rim of a wine glass, everything about this plan seems so stupid. Of course she doesn't want him any more, he thinks bitterly, remembering the last time she stood in a doorway demanding that he explain himself. He'd made sure of that.

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard," Mindy says slowly, like she still can't believe what she's hearing. "You made up a fake person - " her voice is rising in pitch slightly - "to, what, to trick me into dating you again? Is this because I didn't let you kiss me the other week? You thought you'd break me up with Charlie - who was a  _really great guy_ , by the way, so thanks for that - and I'd just be like, oh yeah, Danny, this giant lie you've concocted has totally restored my faith and trust in you, let's make out at the top of the Empire State Building and pretend the last two months didn't happen? What the  _fuck,"_ she says, almost savagely, "were you thinking?"

There's really only one answer to that. "I wasn't," he replies softly, still staring down at the floor.

"You think?" Mindy replies bitingly. "You know, Danny, even for you, this is just  _low_. I need to leave," she says, grabbing her purse off the floor, setting her wine glass down on the counter. "I can't believe you, Danny, I really can't," she continues, heading for the door. "Thanks for ruining every single good thing about my life.  _Again._ "

"Wait," Danny calls desperately, his voice cracking. She gives no indication that she hears him so he strides after her, grabbing her arm as she goes to turn the door handle. "Min,  _please_. Just let me explain."

"Better be a damn good explanation, Castellano," she replies shortly, wresting her arm from his grip. She turns around, leans back against the door, arms crossed over her chest. She looks... _tired_. Tired of him, probably. He doesn't blame her. He steps back a little to give her some space, absent-mindedly runs a hand through his hair, returning it to its usual half-mussed state. He has a million things to say and he doesn't know where to start.

In the end, it all just spills out of him in a jumble. "I should never have broken up with you," he says in a rush, cringing inwardly when she raises an eyebrow at that confession. "I regretted it the moment I did it. I stood outside your apartment for twenty minutes and I wanted to go back up and take it all back, but I didn't know how. It's been killing me, Min, being without you. Watching you go on dates with those losers, that guy from the school, then seeing you make eyes at that kid on the subway like you didn't even feel  _anything_ for me any more, like you'd moved on - I couldn't take it. I couldn't stand the idea that you might not..." he trails off, wipes his palms on his trousers again, fiddles with his collar, looks anywhere but at Mindy's face. "I'm in love with you, Min," he finally says, almost tripping over the words. "I'm in love with you and I couldn't stand the idea that you might not love me back, that you might not even  _like_ me any more. I had to do something. I  _had_ to. Min, I'm sorry," he says, finally meeting her eyes. "I really am, this was stupid, it was the worst possible thing I could have done, but I just, I couldn't lose you. Not again." He wipes a tear away from his cheek with the back of one hand. "Not forever," he says quietly, his voice a little choked. "I just - I couldn't."

He falls silent and waits for her to say something,  _anything_ , waits for her to slap him in the face or scream or do  _something._ Instead, she just stares at him with an unreadable expression on her face, lips slightly parted, one toe tapping absent-mindedly, the rhythmic clicking sounding eerily loud in the silence.

"I love you," he says, and this time he doesn't bother to wipe away the tears. "Min,  _I love you_."

Mindy sighs and uncrosses her arms, stops tapping, shakes her head like she still can't believe all of this. "You're such an idiot," she says, and he thinks he can hear her choking back tears of your own. "Why didn't you say something before?"

He half-shrugs, hands in his trouser pockets. "I was scared," he admits.

"So scared you had to make up someone for me to fall in love with just so you could talk to me?" she asks.

He looks down, vision made slightly blurry by tears, looks back up. "Yeah," he says. "I'm sorry," he adds uselessly, knowing it probably won't help.

Mindy shakes her head. "We want to kill each other at least once a day," she says, throwing his words back at him, but the look in her eyes is a little warmer and for the first time, Danny dares to hope.

"I don't mind so much," he offers, venturing a half-smile.

"And what's gonna happen if we start dating?" she demands, unable to keep a grudging half-smile from her lips in return. "I mean, what's really gonna happen?"

Danny steps a little closer. "We'll fight," he concedes. "But...we'll make up. And you'll change a little, and - " he swallows, takes a deep breath, meets her gaze squarely - "I'll change a lot. Two things, or seven, or twenty, or a hundred if you want."

"You think you can do that?" Mindy asks a little breathlessly. Her eyes are shining with tears and her dark hair is falling around her shoulders and she is so,  _so_ beautiful and Danny swears to God that he will make this work or die trying.

"Yeah," he replies, closing the distance between them. He raises one hand and wipes the tears from her cheek before tucking a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. "I think I can."

Mindy closes her eyes, and he can see tears clinging to the long, dark lashes. Danny wipes those away, too, then gently kisses her forehead before pulling her close. It's been so long since he held her like this. He has no idea how he'd survived without it.

He's never going to let her go, never again, no matter how many fights they have or how much he has to change. He knows it.

"Give me another chance," he begs, pressing kisses into her hair before pulling back so he can look her in the eyes again. They've both stopped crying now. Her fingers are running through the hair at the nape of his neck and he feels all the tension of the last two months flooding out of him at once, leaving him almost limp. "Please?"

Mindy rises on her tip-toes and kisses him, pulling him close. He can taste the salt of their tears along with the wine she'd been drinking before and the candy sweetness of her lip gloss. She sighs against him as his tongue parts her lips, and it's the most perfect thing in the world - this moment right here, Mindy in his arms kissing him like she never wants to stop. It's absolution, her lips on his and his fingers tangling in her hair and the warmth of their bodies pressed together. It's the beginning of forever, the first night of the rest of his life.

She pulls away from him and looks up, smiling with that infectious warmth she has, and Danny finds himself smiling back.

"I love you too, dummy," she says.

"Is that a yes?" he asks.

She answers him with another kiss, and he thinks, maybe he'll get it right this time.


End file.
